Jurisdictional Immunity and the Responsibility of the State Officials Immunity

Abstract

This article deals with this question, that whether, in case of grave violations of obligations under international law, the states may not longer invoke jurisdictional immunities of the state, as a new development and trend in case law, i.e. lex ferenda, whereby includes the principal official representatives of the state, acting in that capacity, or by exercising jurisdiction over foreign state, the court would act in breach of jurisdictional immunity of states. While certain groups of international law jurists, based upon, in particular, the exigency of ending the impunity, when a grave violation of international humanitarian law is perpetrated, defend the new trend, namely non-invoking of jurisdictional immunity of state, as lex ferenda, the author challenges the said assertion, stating that International Court of Justice judgments have not supported such domestic litigations and adjudications, vice versa still underline state immunity as lex lata and as a principle of international customary law

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